Leaving the office at a reasonable time to push more priority out of the last hours of the day into the first hours of the day is a great strategy for getting more things done. If that’s all we do, we may still find our productivity lacking. Two additional co-strategies maximize the effect that we may get by becoming early risers.
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I caught myself doing it this afternoon. I’ve counseled others not to do it. I know the wisdom of not doing, but I caught myself doing again. I’m referring to working late. We’ve all been there. It just didn’t seem that there were enough hours during the day to get the vital tasks done, so we work a little late. Tonight it was an hour, other nights have been 2 – 3 hours.
It starts out innocently enough; a crisis happens that pulls us from our priorities and we have to make time up after work. Before we know it, we begin to stay after hours more and more. Pretty soon, out of sheer habit, it becomes part of our regular routine. We begin to count on those extra hours. As a result, the hours earlier in the day begin to lose their importance because, after all, we can always catch up after work, so we don’t hustle — we don’t feel that sense of urgency that drives us forward.
What do Mark Cuban, Donald Trump, Rosie and I have in common? We have all been chosen to be in Tino Buntic’s 2000 Bloggers project!
According to Technorati, there are 55 million blogs out there. That’s hard to fathom. Tino Buntic’s 2000 Bloggers project attempts to bring 2K of them together in one web site. That’s only .0036% of all blogs! I was pleased to find out that Open Loops was one of the first 100 chosen to be included! That is only .00018% of all blogs! Sweet!
Click the link below and take a look at the 2K kids as it stands today! By the way Tino, nice touch putting Rosie and the Donald side by side!
Most people think their passwords are secure. Bruce Schneier thinks otherwise and writes a very compelling piece:
"Ever since I wrote about the 34,000 MySpace passwords I analyzed, people have been asking how to choose secure passwords.
My piece aside, there's been a lot written on this topic over the years -- both serious and humorous -- but most of it seems to be based on anecdotal suggestions rather than actual analytic evidence. What follows is some serious advice."
When I began my first appointment as a school administrator, I quickly found that a large part of my job was dealing with disciplinary issues that arose during the day. As a result, I dealt with students who tried to lie to get out of deserved consequences for inappropriate behavior. In addition, I found that I also dealt with a small number of parents who, in their effort to protect their children, would also bend the truth in an effort to get them out of trouble. Some parents truly believed their children, despite the mountain of evidence against them. Their children truly resided within the parent’s personal blind spot. Other parents actually out and out lied to me.
Many times, during the course of a day, we have to deal with irate people. Whether we are in Customer Service and dealing with angry customers or school administrators dealing with angry parents, handling an irate person and being able to lead them to a more calm — and logical — state can be a very desired skill.
The most common mistake that people make is to assume that when someone is out of control, we should calm our voices to model the desired state we wish the person to have. The assumption is that the other person will match us and a calm and logical conversation can then take place. Unfortunately, this rarely happens. Instead, because of the calm demeanor, the complainant doesn’t feel heard. Their rationale is that since the listener is not as outraged as they are, they must not have been listening or they don’t believe what was shared. The result is no trust so the person remains angry and outraged.
I’ve had some major life changes happen in the last two months. As a result,
I’ve changed the way I’ve done many things. One thing that I’ve been doing more of is texting from my cell phone. Just like email, I’ve noticed that there appears to be some right and wrong things that are being done when people send texts to me. There are also things that people do that drive me crazy. So, here’s a few Do’s and Don’ts for all you texters out there:
- Don’t replace all communication with texts. It’s the same within a business environment as it is with personal relationships, texting cannot communicate those subtle nuances that accompany face-to-face meetings or even phone calls.
- Don’t deliver bad news by text – See the source article below!
- Texts should be short and sweet – Verizon says that anything over 160 characters should be an email.
- Don’t expect your text to get to your recipient the minute you hit “send”. I’ve seen messages take days to get there. If it’s time sensitive, call. I sent one text in reply to one that I received and it was delivered the following day…at least 30 times. My recipient sent me one back saying, “Make it stop!”
- Don’t send texts while under the influence…bad move.
- Check the recipient’s number BEFORE you hit “send”. Your boss might not like receiving the love letter you thought you sent to your girlfriend.
- Use texting for messages that cannot be misinterpreted.
- Do not send texts to friends when you are with someone else. Reading and sending texts when with someone else (while on a date, for example) tells the one you are with they are less important than the one you are texting. This doesn’t apply when just hanging out with others.
- Do not text while driving — Ever.
- Surveys show that many people find the shorthand messages that others send to them as difficult to read and understand. Consider using predictive text software that makes texting faster and less frustrating.
What are some best practices for short texts that you can add to this list?
Source: U r sckd: worker fired by text message
ILRP
A professional appearance goes a long way in creating a positive image in business relationships. One thing that has always bothered me is when someone’s tie doesn’t stay centered and drifts off to the side, up under the suit coat, or blows over the shoulder in a strong breeze. Since tie pins and metal tie clasps are not in vogue, here is an easy way to create a tie stay that is invisible holds a tie down better than anything on the market. When I was an art teacher, I followed the old adage that you should dress for where you are going, not for where you are. Therefore, although I taught middle school art, I dressed in suits and ties. Invariably, my tie would fall forward as I leaned over the table and would drag through paint. After a lot of ties were ruined, I came upon a simple solution.
Many people, in an effort to be more productive and effective, study different systems to do so. They purchase book after book on the latest productivity concepts. This includes “Getting Things Done”, the most recent productivity phenomenon, as well as other structured programs, such as “Control Your Workday Control With Microsoft Outlook” and less structured programs like “The Personal Efficiency Program”. Millions of dollars are spent by people in the pursuit of being more effective. Hours are invested in studying and implementing these systems. However, a simple concept, taught by the Center for Creative Leadership, explains why many fail, despite so much money and time being invested.
Interviews are a major part of getting the job that you are pursuing. It’s amazing, however, at the number of people who go into them unprepared. One of my employees came to me and explained that she had expressed an interest in a different position in our district. It would be a lateral move with no increase in pay. It held, however, the potential for advancement — with an accompanying pay increase — later. She was prepared to go in for the interview…so she thought. After a brief questioning, I found that she was not prepared at all. Since time was short, too short to prep her adequately, I gave her an intelligence-gathering strategy that I was taught many years ago.
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